Burning Man recently revealed the theme for 2026 after this year’s festival closed on September 1. Festival enthusiasts looking for the center of the world should check Black Rock City first.
The official theme for Burning Man 2026 is axis mundi, which describes the concept of the center of the world. It has astronomical, mythological, and spiritual meaning, often relating to the connection between Heaven and Earth. In astronomy, it translates from Latin to describe the Earth’s axis between its celestial poles. Burning Man organizers have taken the more conceptual ideas behind axis mundi for the next festival theme.
“To the Maya it was the Ceiba tree, to the Norse Ygdrassil, to the Celts the Crann Bethadh,” reads the festival’s official announcement. “The ancient Greeks called it the cosmic pillar, and the Slavs knew it as the Great Oak. Siddharta’s Bodhi tree, the sacred cottonwood of the Lakota, and the Iroku of the Yoruba can all be seen as manifestations of the same deeply rooted idea that there is a centerpoint of existence that connects us with powers greater than ourselves.”
Burning Man 2026 will take place from August 30 to September 6. The location will stay the same, as the festival has taken place in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert since its start. Black Rock City, the transient hub of Burning Man, often shifts locations within the desert. This allows for a changing landscape. But ultimately, the festival’s presence remains firmly in the desert.
Furthermore, the festival compared its iconic wooden Man effigy to the spiritual center of the world. The Man is burned at the end of the festival, marking the closing of another year.
Burning Man Festival Aims To Become The Center Of The World In 2026
“The Man can be seen as our version of the cosmic tree, a Jacob’s Ladder connecting us to the unseen and unknowable,” the announcement continued. “It functions as the axis mundi of our far-flung world, around which we all spin at 1,000 miles an hour, clinging to each other to keep from flying off into space. Each summer it rises from the ancient lakebed of the Black Rock Desert, and throughout the year its sibling effigies are planted at regional gatherings around the world.”
Stuart Mangrum, Burning Man Project Director of the Philosophical Center, designs the themes for the festival every year. He has led the project since 2019, and collaborated on themes with founder Larry Harvey since 1995. Mangrum clarified that the theme doesn’t dictate how to dress or decorate a camp. Instead, it’s a guide for festivalgoers to create art and represent the festival’s overall legacy.
For Mangrum, there are three levels to a theme. First, it’s a “fertile ground” for inspiration as artists create various projects during the festival. The theme must also be accessible to all artists and attendees. It also has to represent the overall values and global community that remain Burning Man’s central pillar.
Theme design starts with Mangrum attending the previous year’s festival and speaking to attendees. “I talk to a lot of people about their hopes and dreams for the coming year,” he recently told Billboard. “Then when I’m out in Black Rock City I start writing, putting up sticky notes all over my trailer and shopping my ideas around to colleagues and participants to see what resonates the most.”
Photo by JULIE JAMMOT/AFP via Getty Images
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